WHAT’S NEXT
- District Attorney Robert James will have to decide whether to pursue a retrial against DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis.
- James also could choose to drop the charges or seek a plea deal.
- For now, all of the 13 charges against Ellis are still pending, and he remains suspended from his elected position as the county's chief executive.
Complete coverage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has delivered to our readers the most comprehensive coverage of the Burrell Ellis trial on our premium website, MyAJC.com/ellistrial/. Follow us online as we continue writing about the impact of this important case on DeKalb County.
On the site:
> Read the latest AJC stories and analysis.
> Browse an interactive that recaps key players in the trial.
> Review what star witness Kelvin Walton and CEO Burrell Ellis said during their testimony.
The prosecutors who will decide whether to retry suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis can take away several lessons from the deadlock that resulted in a mistrial earlier this week.
Legal experts say prosecutors might want to get more detailed information about each juror’s views on issues such as campaign finance and rely less on secret recordings made of Ellis.
Ellis is accused of strong-arming vendors for contributions to his 2012 re-election campaign and threatening to take away county business from those who didn’t give. He was charged with 13 counts of bribery, extortion, theft and perjury. But Ellis has argued he never asserted influence over who got what contracts and that he was simply doing what politicians do: aggressive fundraising.
The jury of 12 women deliberated for 11 days but couldn’t come to an agreement on verdicts. Tuesday, the judge declared a mistrial. District Attorney Robert James, who remains under a gag order, hasn’t said whether he will try the case again.
The jury’s forewoman has said Ellis came across as likeable and credible on the witness stand, and some of the jurors simply did not want to send him to prison. Meanwhile, she said, jurors questioned the motives of a government informant, whom they viewed as untrustworthy.
Next time around, lawyers in the case will want learn more about juror’s views on politicians and fundraising, some legal experts said.
“I’d want to discuss what might be aggressive campaigning and what might not be, and what people expect of a politician,” said Jill Holmquist, president of the American Society of Trial Consultants. “There might be an assumption that, yeah, he has to raise money to be elected.”
It’s unlikely that a second trial would have the same result, said Robert Bettler Jr., head of the Atlanta office for DecisionQuest, a trial consulting company.
“Hung juries are pretty rare,” Bettler said. “Although human beings want to reach some sort of consensus, people dig in their heels after a while.”
Jurors voted 11-1 to convict Ellis on one extortion charge and were more evenly split on most of the other counts against him.
Ellis remains free on a $25,000 bond but suspended from the office he was overwhelmingly elected to in 2012. He continues to draw his $150,000 salary.
If the district attorney does decide to try him again, some observers said, prosecutors might rely less on recordings of Ellis covertly made by Kelvin Walton, DeKalb’s former purchasing director. Walton cooperated with the district attorney’s office to avoid being prosecuted for lying under oath.
Jurors tend to trust secret recordings made by law enforcement officers. Jurors are less trusting of recordings made by a cooperating witness such as Walton, who was subject to criminal charges when he recorded Ellis.
“They’re wondering what role the person doing the recording has in the case,” said Michael Clark, a Suwanee trial attorney and formerly a Gwinnett County judge.
Jurors also probably picked up on the conflict between Ellis and District Attorney Robert James, the two most powerful elected leaders in DeKalb, said Jay Abt, an Atlanta defense attorney who wasn’t involved in the case.
James’ case against Ellis had been building for more than two years, and it’s the only prosecution that has resulted from a year-long special grand jury inquiry that recommended criminal investigations of a dozen government employees and contractors.
James could try to settle the case and avoid a retrial, Abt said.
“Save face and reach a deal prohibiting Ellis from ever seeking public office again,” Abt said. “Otherwise, it’s going to appear even more personal than it already is.”
Another option would be for James to keep the charges pending, without going to trial, until Ellis’ four-year term as county CEO expires at the end of 2016, said Ken Hodges, a former district attorney now in private practice in Atlanta.
“A mistrial is a bad political position for Burrell,” Hodges said. “Clearly his life and liberty should be paramount to his decision … but he may decide he has to get an acquittal to get on his with personal and professional life.”
While a mistrial gave Ellis a temporary reprieve, prosecutors often obtain guilty verdicts during a retrial. Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson said her office has won every case it has retried after a mistrial.
Supporters of Ellis, such as Joy Williams, a retired Marta contracting employee, said they want James to give up on the case entirely.
Williams sat through the entire trial, and she said she wasn’t impressed by the evidence against Ellis.
“It’s a waste of taxpayer money and time,” she said. “Find something better to do and get some real criminals.”
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